Keeping up your spirits

When I first started writing this blog I wondered where my inspiration would come from. Books, work, meeting and chatting with like-minded people? Little did I realise how much informative and beautiful things can be found on the internet! Well, now I know!

It all started with a purchase I made on e-bay, which led me to a blog printandpattern. Based here in the UK this is very much a personal take on graphic design at the moment. Commercial and studio design are all featured and even if you feel this doesn't have much relevance to crochet, it certainly will stir a part of you to go for that unusual colour choice or place that embellishment just there.

I mentioned my delight at what I was finding to a friend who pointed me in the direction of design*sponge, which is the mother-ship for many of these design-led blogs. Professional bloggers have a punishing schedule to feed our appetite for information and inspiration anddesign*sponge never fails to disappoint. An inspiring home, a beautiful shop space, a scrap of wallpaper, a cushion; they all can lead in directions with your creative work that you never expected.

Once I was set on my travels in e-land, I couldn't stop! Pathways opened up into unexpected waters and on one of these journeys I stumbled on poppytalk which, in a little way like design*sponge, offers peeks at what is going on but also shows the best of talent on etsy through poppytalkhandmade.

These were my tools in thinking that perhaps starting at blog school might be something worth trying. Curating and collecting inspiration and creativity from crochet did seem a tall-order but when it came to it I suddenly found that there were many others - artists, devotees and just fans - who were also doing the same thing and bringing all that together could be something rather interesting. And that's how chaincreative was born!

This week I'm going to tie up some loose-ends and set up the stage for September when we return. There's so much to look forward to with some great chainexhibitions to organise. In the meantime visit some of my suggestions to gather inspiration of your own.